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Jimmy Heath, the highly influential jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, has died. He was 93 years old, as The New York Times reports.
Heath was a prolific composer who wrote over 125 songs throughout his career, which spanned over 70 years. Several of his original pieces went on to become jazz standards performed by the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others. Heath also performed alongside some of jazz’s most revered figures including Davis, Gillespie, John Coltrane, Wynton Marsalis, Howard McGhee, and more.
Heath is credited with bringing bebop music of the 1940s to big bands, as well as preserving the style decades after its initial popularity. In the mid-1970s, Heath formed the Heath Brothers with his older brother Percy on bass and his younger brother Albert (aka Tootie) on drums.
Later in his life, Heath worked as Professor of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
Heath died earlier today (January 19) in Loganville, Georgia, according to the Times.